'Moon has more water than expected'
A new study has found that the amount of water on the moon is much more than what scientists thought and that it is mostly found under the planet’s surface.
"Water may be ubiquitous within the lunar interior," the researchers wrote in the report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
"We found that the minimum water content ranged from 64 parts per billion to 5 parts per million -- at least two orders of magnitude greater than previous results," leader of the study Francis McCubbin of the Carnegie Institution of Washington said.
Recent moon missions have shown frozen water in shadowed craters on the moon’s surface, and ice under the gray dust.
Scientists say the water has become part of the moon’s rocky interior and is not easily accessible, Reuters reported.
Many scientists say the moon was formed from the material, which was knocked off after a Mars-sized object hit the Earth 4.5 billion years ago.
The process created magma and some water molecules were preserved as the magma cooled and crystallized.
Researchers studied samples collected during Apollo moon missions 40 years ago, and found that the kinds of rocks that will be more common in the interior contain chemical evidence of hydrogen and oxygen compounds.
"The concentrations are very low and, accordingly, they have been until recently nearly impossible to detect," Bradley Jolliff of Washington University in St. Louis said in a statement.
"We can now finally begin to consider the implications and the origin of water in the interior of the Moon."
Source: presstv.ir
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